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Universality of Science: Historical Validation of a Philosophical Idea

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Universality of Science: Historical Validation of a Philosophical Idea Universality of Science : Historical Validation of a Philosophical Idea Michel Paty To cite this version: Michel Paty. Universality of Science : Historical Validation of a Philosophical Idea. Habib, S. Irfan and Raina, Dhruv. Situating the history of science : Dialogues with Joseph Needham, Oxford India Paperbacks, p. 303-324, 2001. halshs-00184932 HAL Id: halshs-00184932 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00184932 Submitted on 3 Nov 2007 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Chap 12, in Habib, S. Irfan and Raina, Dhruv (eds.), Situating the history of science : Dialogues with Joseph Needham, Oxford University Press (New Delhi), 1999, p. 303-324 (Oxford India Paperbacks, 2001). (Trad. en anglais, par M.P. Original français : 1997f, 1999c). Universality of Science :Historical Validation of a Philosophical Idea A by MICHEL PATYB SUMMARY.- The question of the universality of science is considered, in contemporary debates, under the most varied and opposed positions depending whether one is sharing the point of view of an "ideal science" or that of a "social production of science". In the first case, science is conceived as the "hard core" of its statements and results at the period under consideration, and its supposed universality ignores factors that relativize its contents of knowledge, and which can be of a conceptual as well as a social nature. Conversely, an exclusive focalization on the social aspects of the production of scientific knowledge ignores the objective character of these knowledge contents, be they either thought objects such as mathematical ones, or phenomena of the real, physico-biological as well as human and social, world. These two extreme positions, although caricatural, are shared by many. They illustrate the absence or ignorance of interdisciplinar analyse between philosophy, the various sciences, history of sciences and general history. We shall first evoke very briefly elements of the critique set against the universality of science as they stand nowadays from inquiries of philosophy of knowledge, sociology of knowwledge, history of science, history and anthropology. Then we shall try to set philosophically the problem of the universality of science as a philosophical idea, strongly linked to science and to philosophy since their genesis. We shall see, by following the idea at various stages of the history of thought, that the philosophical statement of universality of science has to be confronted with the historical reality of the production, diffusion and assimilation or appropriation of scientific knowledge, always specifying the various dimensions of that one (which include its applications and its links to a Paper presented at the International Conference Science the Refreshing River. On the History of Science and Civilization, New Delhi, 2th-4th sept. 1996. b Equipe REHSEIS, UPR 318, CNRS, and Université Paris 7-Denis Diderot (2 Place Jussieu, F- 75251 Paris-Cedex 05, France MICHEL PATY UNIVERSALITY OF SCIENCE : A PHILOSOPHICAL IDEA TO THE PROOF OF HISTORY 2 techniques and to technology). MICHEL PATY UNIVERSALITY OF SCIENCE : A PHILOSOPHICAL IDEA TO THE PROOF OF HISTORY 3 1 THE NEED FOR A HISTORICAL ANALYSIS.` The problem of universality of science is considered, in contemporary debates, under the most varied and opposed positions depending whether one is sharing the point of view of an "ideal science" or that of a "social production of science". In the first case, science is conceived as the "hard core" of its statements and results at the period under consideration, and its supposed universality ignores factors that relativize its contents of knowledge, and which can be of a conceptual as well as a social nature. Conversely, an exclusive focalization on the social aspects of the production of scientific knowledge ignores the objective character of these knowledge contents, be they either thought objects such as mathematical ones, or phenomena of the real, physico-biological as well as human and social, world. These two extreme positions, although caricatural, are shared by many. They illustrate the absence or ignorance of interdisciplinar analyse between philosophy, the various sciences, history of sciences and general history. It is true to say, as we all are conscious, that science is not only a set of knowledge, ruled by the judgements of reason and of experience. Science is also involved in a cultural and axiological context, and stands on values that are commonly accepted by the culture in which it takes place. But science is also an activity and includes, as such, its practices, that are socialized ones or even directly social practices. Science contains also its applications which have consequences on the transformations of society, and these transformations have a direct retro-effect on science itself. Science, technology and society are closely related, and contemporary science is often considered as "technoscience", a concept invented to express this complexity. To-day science is inseparably the system of science and technology, in which the two dimensions I mentioned previously also take part, science as content of knowledge and science as practice. The fact that, when we speak of science, a system is at stake means that we are compelled to consider that the very notion of science means indissociation between knowledge as content and the concrete situations in which it is embedded. This means that, even if we would consider only the epistemological dimension of science, that is science as a type of thinking, we would have to consider the possibility of these effects or consequences as virtual properties of such a type of thinking. This expresses nothing else than the following evidence : human thinking, whatever be the form under which we consider it, carries with itself the virtuality of man's practices, actions and sociality. MICHEL PATY UNIVERSALITY OF SCIENCE : A PHILOSOPHICAL IDEA TO THE PROOF OF HISTORY 4 At every period of history, and in every cultural area, science, or its equivalent, is embedded in a cultural totality of an organic nature and constituting by itself a system. This systemic character makes difficult to conceive the possibility of transmission of a state of science and of culture to another one, be such transmission considered either in space at a given period, or in time along the flow of history : out of their systems, the elements that constitute these systems undergo a shift of meaning. Hence the difficulty of the question of transmission, which, as I shall try to show, is at the heart of the question of universality. This state of affairs is eventually taken as an excuse by those who consider that the debate on the universality of science is closed, because it is strictly related with the claim of universality made by the "western-positive- technological" conception of science. Those who share this conception consider that to-day science, “world science”, is the only universal science, and they would deny any other and further consideration. One could however object that “universality” meant in that way is not necessarily a feature of this science, but has been imposed by an economical mode of domination related systemically with the power of technology. On the contrary, radical opponents to this “imperialist” conception of science would deny any value to the notion of universality of science, precisely because of this systemic solidarity between science and domination. But they ignore that systems evolve and that elements taken from within a structure can be transferred to another structure without disappearing. In such a case, it will be intersting to inquire ourselves about the changes of meaning these elements suffer, or, eventually, about some permanencies that can be observed through the process of transmission. And, indeed, if translation is treatery, it might well, for this very reason, endow some creative effects. With this in mind, we can wonder whether there is not, in the case of "universality of science", something that resists the strong criticisms that have been opposed to it. I am sure that Joseph Needham - who wrote an admirable meditation on the historian of science as an œcumenical man1 - would not have liked to leave up the idea of universality of science, for it would mean at the same time to leave up the idea that science is value, and deprive us from one of our means - tools or arms -, to act in favour of the enlightenment and accomplishment of mankind. And it thus would make us leave the place for the benefit of growing obscurantisms and fundamentalisms. But, for sure, we have to question science and the idea of its universality, in order to understand better what kind of reality and effectiveness these notions have. I shall take as my point of departure, in this intended critical analysis and reconstruction, the state of criticism, now rather known, corresponding essentially to : 1) reflections on the insertion of science in the industrial and capitalistic society (see, for instance, the works of Max Weber, of Jurgen 1 Needham [1993]. MICHEL PATY UNIVERSALITY OF SCIENCE : A PHILOSOPHICAL IDEA TO THE PROOF OF HISTORY 5 Habermas, of Jacques Ellul, among many other); and 2) reflections on the link between science and imperialism, which have been growing during the last two decades and of which the studies on "Science and Empires" are a part. Admitting these analyse and criticisms as known, I shall try, in what follows, to develop some elements of argumentation which are more a call for further thematical investigations than mere statements or conclusions.
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